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'Dancing With the Stars': Two perfect scores, plus more 10's for Country Night

By Jacquie Oliverius

Correspondent

Posted:
10/29/2012 11:53:38 PM PDT

Updated:
10/29/2012 11:55:52 PM PDT

When last we left our happy hoofers, Sabrina Bryan and Louis Van Amstel were in the lead after last week's individual and team dances, while Kelly Monaco and Val Chmerkovskiy were at the bottom of the leaderboard, but no one was eliminated. This week's dances were ballroom styles done to country songs, with a solo thrown in, followed by a group dance that gained one couple two bonus points.

It was easy to tell it was going to be a two-hour show on "Dancing With the Stars" All-Star Season 15 when the show opened with a performance by Little Big Town and dancing by the DWTS Troupe. But considering the long-winded rave reviews by the judges for some of the dances, the show needed all of its 120 minutes to squeeze everything in.

The story of the night were the triple 10's for two perfect scores of 30. One set of 10's was given to Sabrina and Louis for their emotional rumba that left both dancers in tears. The dance was described by judge Bruno Tonioli as "a sumptuous sequence of intriguing shapes," and judge Carrie Ann Inaba could only rise and gesture Sabrina to come over for a hug.

A perfect score of 30 also went to Apolo Anton Ohno and Karina Smirnoff for a Viennese waltz that brought the pair closer together following a fight the previous week. Head judge Len Goodman said it was "two people in harmony with the music and with each other," while Carrie Ann added, "Dance without emotion is just movement for movement's sake and that's not what I've just seen."

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The judges were generous with those "10 paddles" for others, as well. The cha cha cha by Shawn Johnson and Derek Hough received a 10 from Bruno, but Len scolded Derek for "too many fripperies, too many gimmicks." For those without a dictionary at hand, a frippery is something "showy, unnecessary or frivolous." Sigh.

Two more 10's were given to Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani for a Viennese waltz that began with Melissa's solo -- what I thought was the best one of the night. Only Carrie Ann denied them a 10, handing them a 9.5. And once more, the "first couple dancing" curse came into play, leaving Gilles Marini and Peta Murgatroyd with two 9's and a 9.5 for a cha cha cha that should have brought out the 10 paddles.

Although the rehearsal packages were overloaded with drama, whining and injuries -- all edited to make the audience believe that the dancers would falter in their performances -- each of the couples did well, with the scores ranging from the 30's at the top to 26.5 for Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke's foxtrot at the bottom.

But wait, there was still the group dance to come that would add a bonus two points to one pair's score. The rehearsals were total chaos, with more complaints of exhaustion and inability to remember the dance steps, which were being taught by a trio of outside instructors. And just as with the individual routines, it all came together on the dance floor with music by Big & Rich and Cowboy Troy. Soon it was apparent that there were too many couples who did well to pick just one winner of the bonus points, so the trio of judges chose to reward entertainment, instead, and gave the two points to Kirstie Alley and Maks Chmerkovskiy.

The judges' scores and viewers' votes from last week will be added to the scores this week from the judges and the voting viewers. Tuesday night promises one bit of a twist -- host Tom Bergeron announced that "fusion dances," a mix of two styles, will be done next week, and couples will pick the styles for each other. (The producers must have liked how this selection process turned out in Week 4.) After results-night performances by Taylor Swift, Jason Mraz and the "Macy's Stars of Dance," the couple with the lowest score will take their boots and go scootin' on home. Is it just me, or does Kelly look miserable most of the time? Do you think she and Val could be the next to be eliminated?